OCTOBER 9, 2006

Racing here and there

While F1 was busy in Japan, the NASCAR teams were at Talladega where there was drama and controversy as Hendrick Motorsport driver Brian Vickers (soon to depart to join Red Bull) won his first Nextel Cup victory on the last lap when he tapped his team mate - and Nextel Cup title contender - into an accident with race leader Dale Earnhardt Jr (another Cup contender) and then ducked through to win the race while they were spinning. In the Chase for the Cup Jeff Burton stayed ahead despite a puncture which dropped him to 27th. He is now just six points ahead of Matt Kenseth who was fourth at Talledega. Veteran Mark Martin is third four points behind Kenseth after a careful race to eighth, while other contenders hit trouble. Kevin Harvick crashed by managed to finish sixth and so moves back to fourth in the points while rookie Denny Hamlin was also involved in a wreck but managed to finish 12th and is still in the hunt in fifth place.

At Bathurst in Australia there was a huge crowd of 63,000 to see Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup give Ford its first win in the Bathurst 1000 since 1998. The Ford was chased home by the Holden of Rick and Todd Kelly with former Jaguar F1 test driver James Courtney third in a Ford with Glenn Seton.

At Brno in the Czech Republic Alex Yoong gave A1 Team Malaysia two wins the second round of the A1 Grand Prix Series, while in Valencia the World Touring car Championship race saw wins for Alfa Romeo and BMW. There are nine drivers in with a chance of the World Championship at the final round of the series in Macau on November 19, led by Alfa Romeo's Augusto Farfus.